Clayton Kershaw confirms 2025 return and Dodgers fans are wondering what will happen

Although they've more or less made it work so far this postseason, the Dodgers' October rotation is light years away from ideal. They've lost Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone, River Ryan, and Emmet Sheehan to injury in one single season, leaving them with basically only three starting pitchers: Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Walker Buehler.

This is tragic for everyone, but it might be most tragic for Kershaw, who came back to the Dodgers after a long free agency (and seemingly some equivocation) because he wanted to redeem himself after his NLDS performance last year and contribute to his team's hunt for another World Series title.

He came for one guaranteed year and a player option for a second. We knew from the start that he wouldn't be back on the mound until the late summer, given the shoulder surgery he underwent in November of last year. Things didn't end up going his way when he eventually made it back to the mound — of his seven starts, only one against the Cardinals looked even a little like vintage Kershaw — but he was still expected in the postseason to try to shake his October reputation.

No dice. A big recurring toe injury sidelined him at the end of August, and the Dodgers confirmed this month that he wouldn't appear in the postseason.

But Kershaw's still been a constant presence in the Dodgers dugout, and ahead of Game 2 of the NLCS, he told the star-studded panel for FOX, "I had some tough luck with my toe this year, but I want to make use of this surgery. I don't want to have surgery and then shut it down. So I'm going to come back next year and give it a go. See how it goes."

Clayton Kershaw confirmed return to the mound next season ahead of NLCS Game 2 ... but for the Dodgers?

Maybe we're reading too much into this, but Kershaw does have that player option and didn't exactly say he'd come back to the Dodgers, which was a little suspicious. But he probably wouldn't have said that on national TV while in Dodger garb if he wasn't going to return to LA.

But then the question for the Dodgers is performance. There will be a place for Kershaw in LA's rotation for as long as he wants there to be and is healthy, but there's no guarantee of success during his age-37 season after a year riddled with poor performance and injury, and there's never a guarantee that the Dodgers will get as far next year as they have this year.

So, while it's great for the clubhouse and maybe for Kershaw's legacy (he's only 32 strikeouts away from 3,000), his return to the Dodgers will come with a lot of caveats.